Chapter 20: Seven-Day Life-and-Death Cycle Tribulation
At the very center of an ocean of grief, Zhang Shou drew his final breath. However, the next instant, his passive ability, A Healer Never Dies of Injury, triggered automatically.
His withered, skeleton-thin body reverted to its original form in a matter of seconds. His heart, which had stopped seconds ago, immediately resumed a powerful, rhythmic beat and sent a surge of vitality to every corner of his frame.
Yu Xian was cradling Zhang Shou in his arms, so he was the first to detect the sudden changes. His weeping ground to a screeching halt. The surrounding people also sensed something amiss. They shifted their tearful gazes toward the two friends, only to freeze as they witnessed the miraculous change unfolding right before their eyes.
Zhang Shou had actually regained full consciousness the exact millisecond his heart restarted. However, seeing how profoundly heartbroken everyone was, he felt too embarrassed to ruin the moment.
When he noticed the sudden, dead silence that filled the market, he cautiously cracked one eye open. Finding the entire crowd staring blankly at him, he could only offer a thoroughly awkward yet polite smile.
He swallowed his saliva and said meekly, "Um... the atmosphere was building up so perfectly, it feels a little disrespectful of me to just not die. How about... I die one more time?"
Yu Xian roared, "You damn well shut up and come for another checkup with me. Don't you dare try pulling a stunt like this again!"
He switched from cradling him to lifting him and dragged him toward the exit. The crowd instinctively parted, opening a path for the two of them.
Long after the two figures disappeared into the distance, the people left behind still hadn't fully recovered from their utter bewilderment. The crowd that had been completely immersed in a tragedy just a minute ago was suddenly left with a profound sense of sheer, farcical absurdity. If a flock of crows had flown overhead right then, cawing into the silence, the atmosphere couldn't have been more pitch-perfect.
Yu Xian dragged Zhang Shou all the way back to the Qilin branch office next to the Public Security Bureau and immediately requested the medical staff to conduct another exhaustive examination.
He faintly sensed that something was off. Even though he refused to drink blood, as a vampire, he was extremely sensitive to a living being's vitality and blood circulation. He could easily tell whether someone was ill just by the scent of their blood and even detect whether a woman was a virgin.
Legend had it that vampires preferred the blood of virgins, likely because of their heightened sensitivity to the scent of blood. Combined with psychological factors, it had given rise to this peculiar habit.
Fortunately, Yu Xian had zero interest in drinking blood, so none of that mattered to him. However, he was completely certain that the moment Zhang Shou returned to life, the scent of his blood and vitality had fundamentally shifted.
***
On the following day, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou sat side by side inside an office. Seated across from them, Jin Sheng studied the freshly printed report for a long time.
Finally, he broke the silence. "The latest analysis reveals that your body has reverted to the exact condition it was in prior to your first examination. This indicates that while your side effects are massive, they aren't quite as absolute as we initially feared."
Yu Xian immediately reached out. "Let me see it."
Jin Sheng handed the report over, and Yu Xian quickly scanned the dense text.
In the report, the doctors had officially designated Zhang Shou's side effect as the "Seven-Day Life-and-Death Cycle Tribulation." In simple terms, even without using his skills, he would undergo a full cycle of aging, death, and rebirth every seven days. If he used his skills, the cycle would accelerate even further.
Furthermore, the report explicitly highlighted that his passive ability had begun recording his biological data the exact millisecond his system was first activated. Every single day, the very first time he experienced a fatal event, his physical state would instantly revert to the exact biological marker recorded during that initial system activation.
In short, as long as he managed to stay alive, Zhang Shou would remain permanently trapped in a perpetual loop between the ages of 17 and 77. On Mondays, he would be a vibrant 17-year-old teenager. By Sunday, he would wither into a frail, 77-year-old man.
This explained exactly why Yu Xian had detected an anomaly in the scent of his friend's blood. The difference in the blood profile of a 17-year-old and that of a 77-year-old was massive and unmistakable.
After reading the document, Yu Xian handed it over to his friend. "Have a look."
Zhang Shou reviewed the report, utterly caught between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry. He couldn't help but ask, "So... I'm basically doomed to spend the rest of my life bouncing back and forth between life and death?"
"Not necessarily." Jin Sheng interjected and gave him a pointed look. "For instance, if you manage to die four consecutive times within a single day, I doubt even the gods themselves can fish you back out of the underworld."
Yu Xian turned to look at Zhang Shou, his expression hardening into a stern warning. "Did you hear that? Don't go running amok just because you have a few extra lives to play with. I'm not saying you can't use your abilities, but you'd better keep a strict tally in your head. Stop pushing yourself to the absolute brink without leaving a safety net."
"Yesterday, I genuinely believed I was a dead man, so I figured I might as well go out in a blaze of heroic glory." Zhang Shou chuckled awkwardly. "Now that I know I can actually live, I'm obviously not going to throw my life away."
Yet the moment his mind flashed back to the utterly melodramatic, tear-jerking spectacle he had orchestrated in the market the day before, he felt a sudden, crippling wave of secondhand embarrassment that made him want to burrow straight through the floorboards.
Jin Sheng pulled a document from his desk and slid it across to Zhang Shou. "Fill out this form. And... would you be interested in joining us?"
Zhang Shou's eyes instantly lit up. "Captain, am I qualified?"
He knew Yu Xian had been recruited into an incredibly high-profile government organization, but up until this very moment, he hadn't even been told the name of the organization. This branch office didn't even bother to hang a single sign outside its doors.
With a warm smile, Jin Sheng replied, "You're already calling me Captain, so of course you are."
Internally, however, a tiny version of himself was doing a wild victory dance—his squad finally had a dedicated healer!
He launched into a detailed breakdown of Qilin and the structure of the Wickedness Purging Squad. Concluding his explanation, he asked, "So, are you in?"
Zhang Shou nodded frantically. "I'm in! I'm absolutely in! Sign me up! But wait, can I be placed in the same squad as Salted Fish?"
Jin Sheng glanced at Yu Xian and chuckled. "You and Salted Fish were already a package deal. Effective immediately, you are officially the designated healer of the Wickedness Purging Squad. Ranked 6340th, codename Death Medic. Your credentials will be processed and delivered in a few days."
Zhang Shou grinned. "Death Medic... Heh, that actually sounds pretty badass."
Yu Xian offered a beaming, overly sweet smile. "Congratulations, Fourth Aunt." [1]
Zhang Shou immediately fired back. "What the hell do you mean by 'Fourth Aunt'? It's Death Medic! The tones aren't even remotely the same!"
Yu Xian nodded repeatedly and smiled. "Mm-hmm, got it, Fourth Aunt."
Zhang Shou pleaded, his face falling. "Um, Captain... is it possible to just change my codename to 'Old Zhang' instead?"
He knew with absolute certainty that Yu Xian would never let this drop and would call him Fourth Aunt until the end of time. Once it spread, he would undoubtedly corrupt the entire squad. It was far better to nip this matter in the bud and swap the codename right now.
Jin Sheng offered a helpless shrug. "The codename 'Old Zhang' is already registered by another operative. If it weren't, I wouldn't have bothered coming up with a new one for you anyway. Besides, 'Fourth Aunt' is actually quite fitting from a strategic perspective, perfect for confusing the enemy. Let's just stick with it."
Realizing that even his cool "Death Medic" title had been stripped away, Zhang Shou wailed. "Noooooooo!"
As it turned out, true happiness was indeed built upon the suffering of others. Watching him despair, Jin Sheng and Yu Xian exchanged a glance, wearing identical, deeply satisfied smirks.
***
Three days later, Yu Xian lounged on his balcony during midday, basking in the warm sunlight as he scrolled through his class group chat on his phone. Although a tragic number of their classmates had lost their lives in the recent crisis, out of a quiet, collective respect, no one had removed the accounts of the deceased from the group.
A voice message from Chen Ling popped up.
—Hey everyone, have you heard the news yet?
Zhang Shou replied via voice message.
—Our glorious queen, why don't you just tell us directly? How could our information channels possibly compete with yours?
Yu Xian chuckled and sent a voice message of his own.
—Let me guess. School is starting back up, isn't it?
Chen Ling confirmed through another voice message.
—School is starting, but there is absolutely no way you guys can guess where we are going to be attending classes.
Yu Xian narrowed his eyes and sent another voice message.
—The Supernatural Academy?
The Aberrant Parasites had infiltrated virtually every single school across Silver City, with the sole exception of the Supernatural Academy. The parasites had deliberately avoided it.
Chen Ling’s voice message returned, thick with shock.
—How on earth did you know?
This was a piece of highly classified information she had spent days digging around to uncover, yet Yu Xian had exposed it in a single sentence.
Yu Xian laughed.
—Not only do I know we are transferring to Supernatural Academy, but I also know that every single surviving student from across the entire city is being consolidated right there.
Yu Xian was now a full-fledged member of the Wickedness Purging Squad. He could easily preview an immense volume of intelligence ahead of time, either through casual conversations with Jin Sheng or by browsing the Qilin app.
Given how few students had actually survived the disaster, once they were all brought together, there would likely only be enough pupils to form two distinct classes per grade.
Furthermore, an overwhelming number of the surviving students had been left with severe psychological trauma, which had left them utterly terrified of ever setting foot back inside their original schools.
Coupled with the fact that parents were completely sick with worry over their children's safety, transferring everyone to Supernatural Academy, the city's only school untouched by the Aberrant Parasites, was the government's best move to restore a fragile peace of mind.
1. This is a wordplay. 四姨 (sì yí, "Fourth Aunt") sounds identical to 死医 (sǐ yī, "Death Doctor"), making it a pun that turns a grim nickname into a harmless family term. ☜